Harry Weasley
Chapter Forty: Hagrid's Freedom
The next day found the nine friends all eating breakfast rather quickly and then going up to the head table asking if they could have a talk with the headmaster before classes that day. He had told them the password, and that he would meet them in a few minutes.
They found themselves sitting in the headmasters office recounting what they had found out the last night. They told him that they felt that with Myrtles testimony that Hagrid should be able to be proven innocent of all wrong doing back then.
"I understand that you all would like to prove your friends innocence in this, and I will do everything that I can to help him. This may take a few weeks to get it all straitened out, and I don't want you to tell Hagrid about this. I want to spring it on him as a surprise. Now is there anything else that you have found out about what is terrorizing the school and students?"
"Well there is one other thing headmaster. Myrtle said that she didn't know exactly what had killed her, but that it was big, and had red slitted eyes. Do you know of any creatures that this might refer to? We have only found two creatures that would do what it is doing at this time, and they both fit her description. The creatures are the Basilisk and the Cockatrice. They both are big and have red slitted eyes. Now if we knew something else that would help out, like how it was getting in and out of the Chamber, then we might know which one it is." Hermoine was going into her contemplating mode right now, and they knew not to bother her when she had something going on in her mind. She was really going at it now, and was about to go to the library when she was reminded that they still had to get to classes that day.
"You can go to the library to work on it when we get done with classes today Moine. But for now, we need to get to Transfigurations with Professor McGonagall before we are late." Harry said this, and with that they were on their way to the classroom. They were happy and when they were done with that class, they went on to Charms, then Lunch and then to a double class of Care of Magical Creatures. They were barely able to keep their calm when they were taking Hagrid's class, but kept their cool around him.
After dinner that night, Hermoine found herself studying late into the night in the ROR trying to figure out what was going on. She had just found what she was looking for, when she heard the door open to the ROR, and she quickly held up a mirror to look behind her. What she saw petrified her, and she had a note in her hand when she fell. The mysterious figure that let the creature in, took her out of the room and to somewhere she would be found.
Hagrid found himself exonerated quite a bit quicker than what the headmaster had originally said. He found that after Dumbledore talked to Myrtle that night, he was exonerated of the problem back then the next day. He was happy and had invited the nine students down to his cabin to thank them for what they had done. When they went down to the cabin, they had all thought that Hermoine was already there, and when Hagrid asked about her, they were all worried. "She was going to the ROR to research about what might have been doing this. I hope that she is alright. Maybe we should go look for her." Hagrid wasn't the only one that was worried for their friend. They decided that they would go look for her in the castle.
The first place they decided to look was the ROR, and when they got there, they found that it was empty, and there was no sign of her. They then made a floor by floor search for her, and couldn't find her until they were by the Hospital Wing. When they got there, they found her body laying on the floor, petrified and laying there stiff as a board.
When Harry knelt down beside her, he felt for a pulse and was relieved when he found one. "She's still alive, she's just like Colin and Mrs. Norris were, just petrified. Maybe there was something that we didn't know about that is keeping them from dying. Hopefully there is, and that no one will be killed." Harry was being hopeful in his assumptions, and everyone knew it. They weren't going to say anything, and didn't when he picked her up and carried her into the hospital wing. He put her in the bed that the medi-witch told him to, and then sat there wondering what she had found, if anything. "Please Moine, please come back to us. We can't do this without you. You are the light in our lives, and you are the one to keep us in line." Harry was crying at this time for his friend. He didn't cry for Colin, and no one was quite sure why he was being so emotional over Hermoine.